Lord, bid your servant go in peace

Lord, bid your servant go in peace. James Quinn* (1919-2010). From Quinn’s first collection, New Hymns for All Seasons (1969), and reprinted in his Praise for All Seasons (1994). This version of the Nunc dimittis*, or the Song of Simeon (Luke 2: 29-32), conforms to Quinn’s aim to write hymns that would provide modern versions to fit the new vernacular liturgy of Vatican II. Quinn described it as ‘a hymn for Candlemas, feasts of Our Lady or for Scripture services for the dead’ (quoted in Herl et al., 2019, Volume 1, p. 1510, note to Hymn 937). It was used in Australia in WOV (1977) and TIS (1999). Hymnary.org reports that it was found in a number of books in the USA, both Catholic and...